


a wasteland I like to call my home

by purplesealion2



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 22:22:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3150464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplesealion2/pseuds/purplesealion2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis wants to know his new neighbor and then he needs his help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a wasteland I like to call my home

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this](http://aloopdaloop.tumblr.com/post/107457565712/otpprompts-your-otp-are-neighbors-in-an) but it’s a bit spoiler-y so maybe just read the fic first?  
> a massive thank you to [inwideeyeddisbelief](http://inwideeyeddisbelief.tumblr.com) for reading over this!

Louis sees a truck and an old car in front of the building, three sort of skinny boys bringing in boxes after boxes along with some other proper muscle guys he knows are just working.

From the window of his kitchen, the only one where he can see the main road, Louis keeps watching them, coming in the building bringing so much stuff he is sure the three guys are moving in together or something. It can't possibly belong all to one person.

He gets tired eventually. So he doesn't count how many beds they are taking inside. Or wardrobes. Actually, Louis doesn't even know if the apartment on the second floor was sold with furniture. He never asked to check it out while it was on sale and he had two reasons mainly for that:

One is Louis can't quite deal with people these days.

The other is that he's happy with his own place.

The building is pretty small with four apartments that only have one bedroom each  - so maybe it would be a bit strange if the three guys were moving in together, but Louis is not there to judge. The kitchen is too small for Louis' liking. But the bathroom is large enough to have a small tub, and the bedroom and the living room are quite nice. It also has a balcony where  Louis loves to have a smoke in, but his neighbors always complain about the smell.

He likes it here, it's his small refugee. It's better than living at the college dorms, also closer to his part time job. That's why he even asked his mother for money to help paying the rent, because it actually improves his life.

Louis also can't imagine still living in the dorms, where people are always so loud and _there_. He needs this quietness, had been needing it for a couple of months before he managed to move, and now that he's been there for almost 6 months he knows he can't live without it.

Despite the fact that he's loud as well, loves to party, loves to be surrounded by people, sometimes he needs to be just alone. Just be by himself.

It's something this place provides him.

It's a nice place to live. Alone or with other two guys. Whoever his new neighbor is, he's sure he'll like it too.

#

After a week, Louis sees him for the first time. The new guy. Louis knows he has been around, though, because the old car is parked across the street. But it's only a week later that he sees the man himself.

Louis is out to do a quick run to the market. He needs vegetables to have a proper meal. Although he's not quite the type to be concerned about vitamins and all, Louis does it at least once a week, when his body starts craving healthy food. Somehow he can sense it  - his cells slow down, his functions miss their basic fuel.

His sister says it's bullshit. But even if it's only his mind, it's still real, so Louis respects it and cooks proper food every once in a while.

It's one of those days, he's going downstairs two steps at a time, impressively fast for someone who is as tired as he is, after a whole day of college and his part time job. He's hungry, though.

As he's passing by the second floor the new neighbor opens the door. It's one of the skinny guys he had seen fro his kitchen window, hair in a mid-quiff and shaved sides. The guy’s holding his phone and earphones as he's just plugging them in, but he becomes  a bit clumsy trying to lock the door holding all that and drops the wire, the earbuds barely touching the floor.

The new neighbor curses under his breath.

Louis can't help but slow down. He's a little curious. At the very least he wants to know if his new neighbor isn't some sort of psychopath creep.

Could be.

But when the guy turns, he doesn't look psychopath-ish at all. He looks pretty harmless with that cocked eyebrow and a minute away from snapping at the creep neighbor starring. At least it’s what Louis would do if he had caught his neighbor watching him. So he just shrugs, mumbles a good afternoon with a helpless smile, and continues his way before the new neighbor says anything.

If Louis spots him at the market and he smirks again, it’s okay.

If the guy smirks right back at him, it's also very okay.

#

Louis hardly ever sees his neighbor again, after the vegetable run to the market. If he does though, Louis is too sleepy to say even a goodmorning. The guy doesn't look particularly friendly in the mornings either.

Louis sees his other neighbors quite a lot, though.

The woman who lives in the fourth and top floor is called Jess. She has a kid, a young girl who is very smart and friendly, and who Louis has watched over a couple of times already. Her  name is Mona, and it’s quite a strange name, Louis must say. But Jess is a strange mom and it doesn't make her any less nice.

Louis is pretty fond of Jess, to be honest. She had been very nice to him when he first moved in, brought him a pie and all that shit he had only seen in movies before. But then again, Jess could only had been trying to get someone to watch her kid for her.

Louis wouldn't blame her. Jess looked really young to be doing this by herself anyway.

The other person is an old men in the first floor. His name is Paul, or at least he thinks it is, but Jess and him had had endless talks on the matter because he only introduced himself once, when Louis first moved in, and Louis doesn't have a good memory.

They tried checking his mail but it's all addressed to a woman's name.

Jess suggested it could be because his wife had died and he never changed the correspondence address, but Louis has a strong belief that's not exactly the story. He doesn't want to comment on that, though. He's afraid Jess might not react as cool as he wishes she would.

The guy who lived on the new neighbor's place before was nice but Louis didn't have much time to get to know him. It’s Jess who absolutely adores him. She is still in touch with him, even after 5 months since he moved away. She says he used to be Mona's best friend and Louis has no doubts. Mona can't shut up about this Harry guy either.

#

But the point is, he never sees the new neighbor and he's still curious. He smells weed once, though. So he knows the guy is more like him and less like Paul, who is always hinting on a funny smell that gets in his house. And even less like Jess who is always saying ' _the toxines of smoking it are so bad_ ', and _if only Louis would let her cook his weed for him_.

Jess doesn't bake the new guy a pie. She says she's busy, and he doesn't seem to be all that friendly. She goes there once, though, and tells all about it to Louis.

Apparently his house is packed with stuff. He has two of three shelves on the living room filled with books and CDS and boxes. His walls are all covered as well. Some painting and pictures and drawings. It's all too much information for her.

He made her tea, which was nice, but didn't have sugar, which was odd.

"Not that odd," Louis says. "Maybe he just doesn't like sugar."

"Of course he doesn't like it, Louis. I'm surprised he doesn't have any, even for guests," Jess points. "I don't like sugar either. It doesn't mean I don't have some stored at home for when people like you come over."

He rolls his eyes and then something gets his attention.

"If you don't even take sugar, why did you ask for it?"

"I didn't?"

Louis rolls his eyes again.

Mona comes over with a piece of paper, a drawing of Louis with a mad face and some sort of a lizard along with him.

"Why do I have this ugly pet with me?" Louis frowns. "And why am I mad? Mona, I'm never mad."

Mona giggles. "Of course you are. You're always like that, Louis."

Jess can't help but snort.

"You two are so annoying. What about this alligator?"

"Zayn has one. The neighbor, you know. Not an alligator!" Jess quickly explains when Louis makes a shocked expression. "A lizard. Mona absolutely loved it."

 

#

He thinks about it some, to be honest. About the guy who doesn't have sugar and offers it anyway. The guy who owns a lizard as a pet. He wonders if Jess told him anything about Louis. If she told him he's also in college - the guy is taking a history course in the local university -, and if she told him his name.

Jess told Louis the guy's name. Zayn.

It's kind of strange to know it second hand.

#

This one day Louis is sitting on his balcony with a lit joint and his phone, watching some funny videos of people accidentally getting hurt. It's a small pleasure, to laugh at such thing, but he knows it's dumb (and probably a little mean) so he never shares it with anyone.

That's when he sees it, the light of his own balcony reflecting another fume, one coming from just below him. He tries to put his joint away to smell it, but he's already high, so he keeps smelling weed everywhere.

He tries to study the movement of it. Someone once told him weed's smoke is different from just tobacco. It stays still longer, doesn't quite spread like the other.

Louis realizes he's staring into the dark night probably too late and he doesn't remember when all the fume had vanished.

#

It's vegetable cooking day again but Louis is baked. Truth is things are not going as they should at college and he may have to retake a particular hard class. Worst part: he'd have to pay for it all over again and it would suck for his finances. Sometimes he thinks about just moving back to the dorms.

But then he gets home and it’s something he can't give up.

So he smokes, a lot. But then, he gets hungry and gets that feeling in his body cells, the slowing down thing. Louis bets he would see their energy bar almost empty, if they had any. It's probably a very stupid thought to have.

He starts cooking, gets the water boiling and gets a carrot to chop with a huge knife.

Looking back, he knows there was a small glimpse of thought that it couldn't end well. He was absolutely stoned. But his mind was working so slow it didn't have the time to stop shit from happening. He felt the sharp pain and saw the blood running and it was already too late.

He can't help screaming in pain.

Then he manages to breath again. It should hurt more, he thinks, as the blood spills, full drops hitting the kitchen floor. Not that it _doesn't_  hurt. It hurts quite bad. But the image... Louis wants to vomit just by looking at it.

He wraps a towel he thinks it's sort of clean around it, just so he doesn't have to face the open cut. Then, with a glimpse of sanity, he manages to turn off the stove before getting his wallet and keys and storming out the apartment.

#

The new neighbor - Zayn - doesn't take too long to answer the door. Louis takes longer deciding to knock anyway. The towel is drenched in red when he opens it with a puzzled look.

"Sorry, I'm very sorry, I'm having this emergency and I can't ask Jess because of Mona and the other guy is really old, I'm sorry, I just-"

Zayn's eyes go wide when he sees the blood wetting the rug by his door.

"I'm making a mess, sorry again, mate, really." Louis steps back.

"It's ok. I- I'll- Hospital, ok. One second, let me get my keys. And some shoes. You'll probably need them too."

That's when he notices he's barefoot, and that his feet has a few red spots as well. "Fuck, I didn't even realise."

"I'll get you some flops, wait."

Zayn comes back in what feels like a second. He also brings another towel that looks a little better than Louis’, but probably just because it's not all stained with his blood  yet, and a backpack, and they get in Zayn's car across the street.

He drives with wide eyes all the way. Louis decides to observe him instead of the road because the darkness of the street and the turns Zayn keeps having to take are just making him feel sicker.

It's so stupid, he was just chopping a carrot. And now he's in a car speeding to the nearest hospital hoping he still gets to keep his thumb. He thinks about moving it to see how much he has damaged it but just considering the idea makes it hurt so he doesn’t .

"What happened?" Zayn asks after a while, like he just now remembers that he can talk to the guy in the passenger seat .

"I was chopping a carrot," he says reluctantly. "Happens all the time."

"With you?" Zayn looks at him for a small second. Louis can almost spot some sort of concern. Then he gets his eyes back on the road. At this speed it's probably the smarter move.

"No, I mean. In general. With random people," Louis points. "As in a kitchen accident."

Zayn smiles to the road. "Yea, sure, mate."

#

The hospital is crowded but spilling blood and a barely functional thumb can get a lot of attention pretty quick. So when the doctor starts taking Louis to somewhere inside where he can stitch it up, Louis looks desperately at Zayn.

"Can he come with me?"

Zayn looks as shocked as the doctor.

"Yes, sure." The man agrees and Louis starts breathing again. He hasn't even realized he had stopped.

Just when they are entering the room and the doctor turns away to get supplies, Zayn whispers behind him. "Afraid of a little needle?"

"You'll know why."

#

It's a great thing Louis knows himself that well.

The blood he could handle. It made him want to throw up, true, but he still could see it and keep conscious.

It was the view he got as soon as the doctor had to spread the cut to stitch the vein inside that made him pass out. He heard Zayn's voice before he blacked out, a warning that let him know he was going to fall to his side, and he tried to put the good hand in the way so he wouldn't hit his head on the floor or something. He doesn't know if he hit  the ground.

When he wakes up, though, he's lying on a bed, and Zayn is standing just beside him.

"Oh, thank god. Warn a friend, would you?" Zayn says.

Louis blinks twice before he can talk. "I tried."

Zayn snorts. "Yea, all mysterious and shit. How are you feeling?"

"I'm surprisingly hungry," he tries to sit but his head spins.

"Happens with the weed."

Zayn gives him a knowing look that makes Louis kind of hate him for a second. But then it makes him grow fonder of him, like they are alike or something.

"They gave you a little morphine, though. After your reaction to the needle. It's all stitched up, you're fine. But you can't eat."

Louis then looks at his hand and feels glad he passed out. So many black lines he couldn't have survived past it.

"Fourteen," Zayn continues . Louis arches an eyebrow at him. "Outside. There's 4 others inside. You keep them for 10 days and then you come back to get them removed. And you have to be here for another two hours."

Louis sighs. He was hungry before all this. Then he was sick. Then he passed out. Now, he's hungry again. And also, what is he going to do? He can't possibly keep this guy here for another two hours and he doesn't remember having the money on his wallet for a cab.

"Great. Thank you, Zayn, you kind of saved my hand." Louis manages to say before he gets even more annoyed by the situation.

Zayn looks at him with a funny expression but he doesn't ask how he knows his name. Louis thinks by now he should know his too. Louis did say it to the nurse when they first arrived in front of him anyway.

"You can go, if you want," he offers weakly. What's a nice way to say ' _but please don't as I'm very scared to be alone in a hospital despite the fact that I'm 24_ '?

Probably there isn't one.

"No, I'm okay. Got my notebook here, I can wait two hours."

Louis smiles. "Ok, nerd."

#

Turns out Zayn isn't studying. Instead he draws stuff but Louis can't quite see what because he's lying  a little far away. Though he manages to distinguish some of it and knows there's a person. But nothing else.

He tries to play the polite nice guy who is really sorry he knocked on his neighbor door on a Thursday night with his thumb almost chopped off  - he is allowed some drama  - but as turns out he's not that guy. He's the loud guy who is _kind of_  sorry but not really because he didn't have any other choice. And who is also still a little high from weed and morphine and really hungry.

"Did they tell you when I can eat?"

"Oh, you can eat." Zayn says quick. "I was just messing with you."

If Louis wasn't lying on a hospital bed  - which is totally unnecessary, he must say  - he could stab this Zayn guy. He even has practice doing so, apparently. But he does the second best thing, though. He gives him the Louis' unimpressed look.

Zayn just cracks a smile. "Sorry, mate. It seemed funny? You were obviously really hungry to chop a carrot while high."

"Yea, I was. I am. Can you please get me some food? Like.. please?" He simply says a little tired and not at all wanting to discuss his adventure in his kitchen. Oh shit, his kitchen. It's probably all under blood now.

"Sure, I'll get some. It might taste like crap, though."

Louis nods. "Yea, I know."

#

Zayn leaves the notebook on the bedside table. That's the only reason Louis goes through it. Also, Louis is bored. That's another reason.

There's also the fact that Louis is a curious son of a bitch but, well, let's not give Zayn cursing ideas. He's pretty sure he'll come up with something of his own.

But the drawings.. They are funny. First one is a towel and it's dripping wet. Then a close up on the drops on the floor along with two feet. Louis' recognizes the image, even if the angle is sort of odd.

Zayn gets there with a tray and stops at the door frame. Before he can snap at him, though, Louis asks.

"Are you drawing us?"

Zayn just closes his half opened mouth and stares at him for a bit.

"My food," Louis gestures for the tray. Zayn helps him get it over his lap and sit a bit better but Louis protests when he tries to get the notebook back. "No, wait, I wanna see it. It looks sick."

"For real? It's just a couple of doodles of today."

Louis looks at him for a second. He has the sides of his hair shaved, and the skin is a little lighter there and it makes him look funny. But Louis likes it. Funny in a good way, he means.

"Looks like a comic to me," he says and stuff some yellow colored mush on his mouth he was expecting to be warm and salty. It's cold and sweet. He can't help but make a face.

"That bad, huh?" Zayn snorts.

"Terrible," Louis nods and laughs. "But the comic, are you doing it about today? Show me the rest," he says with his mouth full.

Zayn opens his notebook faking reluctance even though he can't hold his act for two seconds. Then he's pointing out the next scenes, that Louis hasn't had the time to see. "Here is me getting you flip flops because you were barefoot."

He checks the confusing doodle with a frown. "Is this important to the storyline?"

Zayn laughs and rests his feet in something under the bed, so his knee is bent and he backs the notebook on his thigh.

"Yes, it shows your character has little to no resistance to pain that he's willing to walk on the freezing street with no shoes on to get to the doctor 0.2 seconds quicker," Zayn explains with a smile.

"I was _just_  high."

"Yea, but I didn't know that just then."

Louis arches an eyebrow as Zayn makes a face. "So, when did you realise that, Sherlock?"

"It was your reaction when I asked you what had happened. _It happens all the time, to people, in general_ ," he high pitches his voice. "I didn't say anything, mate. I was just worried you were in danger or something."

Louis lets the air out in a frustrated sigh. "You're too controlling of every little thing I do. I feel very judged around you," he stuffs another spoon full of food in his mouth. It tastes a lot better when he's waiting for it to be sweet. Still not good, though.

"I'm just perceptive," Zayn points. "You know, in an artistic sense."

Louis doesn't say anything to that. But he thinks it's bullshit.

"Then what part are you drawing next? If you put all those small details you're not gonna finish this in this life."

Zayn shifts his weight to his other leg, bents his other knee. "Of course I will, it's only one night. Not quite that much to draw anyway. I was going for the car bit."

Louis moves to his side then, almost drops a bottle of water on the tray with the movement. "Sit here so I can watch it."

Zayn doesn't question it.

#

It's quite strange, to see something from someone else’s perspective. Zayn only saw the road, and then a very funny expression on Louis' face he's sure the guy is exaggerating.

Then he cuts the nurse bit, just putting in the part where Louis says his name and she makes a face when he shows her the cut  - "With a knife? Really?" she asked  - and there's the passing out thing.

"You caught me?"

Zayn looks at him with wide eyes and shakes his head. From up close, just a couple of inches apart in the single bed, his eyes are quite big. "No, I let you fall and hit your head because I thought a concussion might help," he says. "Of course I caught you, Louis."

"Well, thank you for that too, then," Louis says a little annoyed.

Zayn just squeezes his thigh after the tray, almost his knee, as in you're welcome. I

Then he talks again. "Here, you should draw the next one. What you saw when you were passed out."

Louis stares. "It was really just an abstract dark thing, not much to draw."

"Go for it." Zayn hands him the notebook and the sharpie.

"But my hand," he tries again.

Zayn frowns. "Are you left handed? You were eating fine."

"No, I'm not-"

"Then you'll be fine," he leaves the notebook and the sharpie over Louis' lap as he takes the tray to put on the bedside table.

"-perceptive bastard."

Zayn laughs.

"I get that a lot."

#

Louis is trying to get a decent abstract dark thing when the doctor comes telling them to leave. It's not easy right next to Zayn's doodle. Even if all messy, his doodles look good. It's frustrating.

Zayn gets up in the same second, too happy to be leaving in Louis' opinion. But truth is he'd rather be lying in his own bed too. He just liked the guy, enjoyed the conversation.

That's why he writes his number there, right in the middle of his doodles. It seems almost like it's part of it.

Then he closes the notebook and hands it over to Zayn, who gets it into his backpack without looking.

"Come back in 10 days," the doctor said. "Other than that, just avoid seafood. It's bad for the healing."

Louis nods and they leave.

#

When they get in the building Zayn walks him to his door.

"Sure you're fine? Not gonna pass out again?"

He feels tempted to fake a little dizziness but it just seems mean. So he shrugs instead. "Are you looking for an excuse to hang out with me, Zayn?"

Zayn laughs with his tongue against his teeth. "Nah, don't need to. You already gave me your number."

And with that, he starts to walk downstairs, still giggling from the lack of reaction from Louis.

#

His kitchen is not half as bad as Louis thought it'd be so he lets it to be cleaned the next day. He manages to brush his teeth and get out of his jeans, but sticks with the shirt because it seems too much work  to change it with a newly stitched hand.

When he lies on his bed and feels the difference of the mattress and the pillow from the hospital bed, his phone beeps by his side.

There's a couple of messages from Jess there, asking why the hell is blood all over the building and if he's okay. Then demanding to know if he's okay. Then just some yelling. In all caps.

There are calls from her as well.

Before dialing to tranquilize the woman, Louis’ phone beeps a new text from an unknown number.

_next time u knock on my door try to have all body parts fully attached to you xx_

Louis rolls his eyes and calls Jess.

He's gotta know more about this lizard pet. And owner.

#

(fim.)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you a lot for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it  
> find me on [tumblr](http://aloopdaloop.tumblr.com) for hating, loving, etc.  
> [reblogs](https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/107649389277/G9GGn3Tk?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Faloopdaloop.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F107649389277%2Fa-wasteland-i-like-to-call-my-home-a-zouis-fic&source=iframe), kudos and comments are better than when my favorite fanfic updates :) (trueee!)


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